Selfless Kevin Pietersen has openly admitted England would not have retained the Ashes had he and Peter Moores stayed at the helm.

The blood-letting that took place in January 2009 saw both Pietersen and Moores (left) lose their jobs as captain and coach, clearing the way for Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower to take over.

It was managing director Hugh Morris' decision to relieve both men of their responsibilities even though Pietersen would have been happy to continue as skipper under a new coach.

But despite the hurt he felt at the time, Pietersen has now acknowledged that by falling on his sword the best interests of the team were actually served.

"I lost the captaincy and have never said this before," he said. "I got rid of the captaincy for the good of English cricket, and we would not be here today if I had not have done what I did then.

"There's no way in this world we would have continued under that regime and won the Ashes again in Australia after 24 years."

Pietersen may or may not be right, certainly there was a personality clash between him and Moores that could not have survived until now.

However, it is important to point out that Moores did bring Flower on board as batting coach as well as Richard Halsall as fielding coach and Mushtaq Ahmed as spin-bowling coach - all men who have contributed hugely to the Ashes success.

The truth is that Strauss and Flower have developed a strong bond and an even stronger structure for England to follow and it has brought results.

They are two men that it is impossible not to respect and the rest of the squad has bought into their philosophy. And although losing the captaincy was painful at the time, Pietersen could see even back in 2009 that Strauss was the right man to take over and pick up the pieces.

Pietersen added: "Andrew Strauss and Andy Flower need all the plaudits for an unbelievable 18 months and an unbelievable preparation for this team.

"They are the right leadership for this team because they are just very good at keeping us level-headed and grounded.

Straussy is a solid bloke and character, a simple person who does things systematically and does things very well for everyone else.

"He looks after himself after everyone else, which is a great quality of a great captain. What he has achieved has not been done for 24 years and I have always had the utmost respect for him.

"Back in 2009 when he gave me the phone call and said, 'The ECB want me to captain - are you OK with that?' I said, 'Go for it, Straussy, you're a top man.' "I said, 'I'm a good mate of yours. Go for it - do whatever you need to,' and I've been proved right. It was a good decision by the ECB.

"Who knows if he is a better captain than me! All I can say is they have done an incredible job and I am so happy for both of them."

And after suffering the humiliation of four years ago and taking a pounding off the field as well, Pietersen believes that this England side has changed Australian perceptions of what they are all about. The chirp and abuse that the players got last time has all but disappeared, and for the 30-year-old it all adds up to the pinnacle of his career thus far.

"It's the best feeling in my career - nothing beats this," he said.

"As an Englishman, winning in England in 2005 was amazing - especially because it hadn't been done for 18 years.

"But people always talked about the fact that when you go to Australia it is a different kettle of fish and last time we came here we got hammered.

"This time we felt that we had some respect before we started the Tests.

"The last time we came here we got hammered as we got off the plane. People in hotels, taxi drivers, everybody just abused us.

"This time, before the first Test, we were talking about it among ourselves.

"We were saying, 'No one is giving us a load of abuse out here - this can't be a bad thing."